Mobility has become such an underlying component of daily life, enterprise computing, and business operations, it can be difficult for IT decision makers to imagine what new device, application, security, and market developments will look like in the near and long term. As the mobility market matures, IDC’s mobility team is looking ahead to technologies such as AI, AR/VR, blockchain, advanced security features, and new delivery and service models, and how these developments will reshape the acquisition, deployment, and management of mobile technology in the enterprise.

Top 10 Mobility 2019 Predictions

The worldwide mobility predictions for 2019 and beyond are:

Prediction 1: Adapting to a growing heterogeneous device environment, 75% of G2000 will be managing five major end-user computing OSs on unified endpoint management platforms by 2022.

Prediction 2: By 2023, at least 25% of new business smartphones (the majority of them Android) in the G2000 will be delivered via DaaS, driven by transforming workplaces, workstyles, and IT consumption models.

Prediction 3: By 2022, Android devices will account for 75% of all rugged mobile devices used in retail and field service deployments as ecommerce growth creates demand for new mobile-centric workflows worldwide.

Prediction 4: Over one-quarter of operators will aim to offer QoS guarantees, enabled by 5G network slicing, by the end of 2021.

Prediction 5: By 2020, 50% of new smartphones will ship with embedded AI, and companies will will use the technology to predict and avoid workflow bottlenecks.

Prediction 6: 5G’s ability to enable new use cases will drive enterprises to deploy 5G mobile devices 3x faster than they did with 4G/LTE, with enterprise 5G devices responsible for 10% of cellular connections by 2022.

Prediction 7: By 2022, 150 million people worldwide will have a blockchain-based digital identity tied to their mobile devices — offering access to government, healthcare, and financial services.

Prediction 8: The use of mobile technology will continue to expand access to financial services so that by 2021, an additional 250 million people will have access to basic financial services.

Prediction 9: Given the growing presence of UEM in the G2000, LOBs will deploy mobile apps at a rate that is 5x what it is today by 2023 using RMAD tools.

Learn more about the 2019 Mobility Predictions

For context around these predictions, including the IT impact and guidance on how to integrate each prediction in the digital strategy of the enterprise, view the IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Mobility 2019 Predictions web conference on-demand.